Last August when news broke that Martavis Bryant would miss the first four games of the season due to repeatedly failing the NFL’s policies regarding marijuana use, Martavis Bryant said all the right things and took all the right actions.

Words were important then, because acknowledging an addiction is the first step to beating it.

Fans can debate the wisdom of the NFL’s substance abuse policies as they apply to pot specialists can haggle over the finer points of whether marijuana is addictive or not, but as Rebecca Rollet said on Going Deep with the Steelers, if you risk losing your job for using pot and you continue to use, you’ve got an addiction.

And so it is with Martavis Bryant.

News broke on Saturday the March 12th that Martavis Bryant is facing a year long suspension for additional violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy. The on the field implications of this news for the Steelers can wait for later. This pieces concerns the implications for this news for Martavis Bryant the person.

Following the Broncos game, there were no shortage of NFL analysts saying that Bryant had Randy Moss like talent. That game proved that such comparisons were accurate. Bryant dominated in a game that saw Antonio Brown out, the Steelers playing their 4th and 5th string running backs, and Ben Roethlisberger at less than 100%.

More importantly, Bryant gave all the signs of someone who had settled down. As Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com reported, in December Bryant stood in the Steelers locker room and “…spoke softly but excitedly about his daughters getting snow at Christmas for the first time. He sounded like a guy who wanted to make a home in Pittsburgh. You wanted to believe it.”

The NFL’s drug guidelines indicate that Bryant’s next failed test would lead to a 10 game suspension. The fact that he’s facing a year suspension implies he failed two tests.

And for those of you counting, Bryant has now failed 6 drug tests. Following his four drug test and suspension Bryant sought conseling and advice from renowned former NBA player John Lucas. This was the right, move, but clearly it wasn’t enough.

His agent Brian Fettner confirmed that Bryant would enter rehab be evaluated for depression, confiding “We’re all stunned, me included. We clearly miscalculated the issue. His isn’t a party issue. It’s a coping issue and a depression issue, and he’s got to take care of it.” Whether his addiction is rooted in depression or something else, Martavis Bryant clearly has demons he must struggle with.